Openings
Johanna Guilfoyle

For my entire life I have relied on a combination of science and art as a way to understand the world.  Growing up I was taught that art and science were separate ways of thinking.  I was told that scientific understanding required objectivity. Designing science experiments requires deliberately isolating variables that can be objectively observed.  Art was taught to me as a method of using subjective observation to communicate emotions.  However, as I went on in my art education, I saw that art too required components of science.  Accurate drawing or painting requires a great deal of objective observation.  To paint realistically requires an understanding of light, space and color.  Just as making art requires scientific observation, scientific discovery necessitates subjectivity.  Objective observation lead scientists to believe for years that we live in a geocentric solar system; it took a creative leap to realize that we orbit the sun.  A scientist must pass observations through the same internal filter as an artist, choosing their dependent variable just as an artist must choose the aspects of their subject on which to focus.

My Grand Canyon series is an example of how I combine my artistic and scientific sensibilities. I used scientific observation to see how the layers of sediment of the Canyon were deposited over millions of years when the Southwest was still covered by a great ocean.  I laid down my pigments in layers as if they were the sediments of the Canyon. Through objective observation, I understood the vastness of time contained within the Canyon.  In Grand Canyon 1 I walk the viewer through different lighting conditions so they can see the passage of time as I saw it.  Through objective observation I understood atmospheric perspective and how the colors shifted from iron oxide reds to pastel pinks, blues, and violets. But through art, I heightened the color shifts to convey to the viewer the feeling of immense space. Thus, I have used the expressive power of art to communicate in visual terms qualities that have their basis in science, forming a complete understanding of my subject matter.